We had a technical error on our end that caused our CBS 60 Minutes broadcast on "The Prosecution of Don Siegelman" to go to black, just as the show was beginning.
Many of our viewers have been highly suspicious of us "blacking out the program" at that very moment. They have a right to be. There are some in the media who abuse their power.
Our satellite receiver failed at the worst possible time. But that's all there is to it. I could go into more, but I am plain TIRED of even thinking about this issue.
By the way, I was waiting at home at 6pm, looking forward to seeing Scott Pelley's report.
We've been bashed on the Internet, blog posts, national news, you name it. Keith Olbermann even put his on his "worst" list Monday night on MSNBC. Thanks, Keith, for taking the side of all the Internet rumors and not calling WHNT to get our side of the story.
Media people like Keith are why.... well, I've already written a blog on him.
We've heard every curse word in the book thrown at us since Sunday night -- in phone calls and e-mails.
One viewer today wrote that we should go stick our head up Karl Rove's you-know-where. Well, thank you.
We still provided a courteous and TRUTHFUL reply to that viewer about what happened, as we did to the hundreds who e-mailed us. Some were nice enough to write back. Some accepted our explanation and thanked us for the job we do here.
Some wrote back, still skeptical, but thanking us nonetheless for caring to provide a response.
Many others didn't write back.. who knows if our emails made a difference in their lives.
We believe in being open and honest about what happened, and we have been, even with the people who have dog-cussed us out. We're a local news station. Stuff breaks from time to time.
Yes, it even malfunctions on a Sunday night when no engineer is on the clock and we expect our CBS receiver to work well, just like it usually does.
This is not the first time we've had an equipment failure at NewsChannel 19. We lost power to the building a few weeks ago, during the 10pm news. Yet, the show must go on.. so we did go on... and did the news with very minimal lighting, in some cases, flashlights. It was primitive, but we presented the news, which is our job.
We lost power to the entire station (yes, a real blackout) last year, mid-afternoon one weekday. Yet, we still went on the air at 5pm and with hand-written scripts, weather graphics on a dry-erase board. Sure, our competition probably laughed at us. But we had no other choice. It happened, and you have to roll with the punches in local news.
We all seem to have 'black eyes' after the last few days.
I just don't have any energy to type about this issue anymore. We've apologized as much as we can apologize, and we got permission from CBS to re-air the Siegelman piece not ONCE, but TWICE, and we thank CBS for allowing us to do so. We also made the entire 12-minute report available on WHNT.com.
Some people still think we're Nazis. You know what I have to say to that?
My favorite line in the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - when Jones says "Nazis. I hate Nazis."
And I do. Can't wait for Indiana Jones #4, by the way. Even though I will probably be at home nursing a newborn, and might not be able to see it for another month or two...
I don't stand for censorship, and I wouldn't work at a station that asked us to censor things on the news. I wouldn't work at one where I even SUSPECT that it happened behind the scenes by one of my co-workers.
I don't feel that way about WHNT. I love the people I work with. They're good people. They're caring journalists. We are members of the north Alabama community -- we live here -- we shop here -- we go to church here -- our children go to school here.
We're your neighbors. Please stop hating us.
In closing, check out some of the blogs my co-workers have written on the 60 Minutes issue. Each of these people are stand-up, solid journalists whom I deeply respect.
Steve Johnson, Anchor/Reporter
Greg Screws, Anchor/Reporter
Denise Vickers, News Director and Station Manager
Patrick Ary, News Producer
Peace,
Claire
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